April 26, 2006

John Howard Is A Shameless Hypocrite

As the Australian Wheat Board scandal begins to make an impact in US news circles, PM John Howard may be about to meet his strongest opponents yet: wealthy US farmers and their strong political allies.

It was shamefully hypocritical for Howard's government to exploit the suffering of the Iraqi people by approving or (at the very least) turning a blind eye to the circumventing of international sanctions against Saddam which Australia had helped put in place.

It was even more shameful and hypocritical that Australia then invaded Iraq, in defiance of international law, domestic opinion and the UN community, because (as Howard argued) those sanctions were not working.

And it was even more shamefully hypocritical that Howard joined the Bush coalition's efforts to actively exploit people's fears by "settling on" the issue of WMDs as a justification for invasion, knowing this was a problematic excuse (at the very least) because they themselves had suppressed information to the contrary.

Now all these shameful lies are unravelling. To defend himself against allegations that the WMD lies were fabricated, Howard attacked whistle-blowers including former intelligence officer Andrew Wilkie. Now, to defend his government from charges of corruption and wilfull negligence, Howard must attack the AWB executives. How long before he starts blaming Bush and Blair for his own failures?